IN western countries, coronary heart disease resulting from clogged up arteries is the most common cause of death. Yet we still don鈥檛 understand exactly what triggers it.
So you might think researchers would rush to investigate fresh claims that infectious agents are involved. The trouble is, the agents in question 鈥� tiny self-replicating bacterium-like structures 鈥� appear to challenge many of the conventions of microbiology. And as all too often happens when orthodoxies are challenged, the debate has become polarised.
The latest evidence for the existence of nanobacteria (see 鈥淎re nanobacteria alive or just strange crystals?鈥�) comes from a team claiming to have found them in diseased human arteries. What is now needed is more funding to try to settle the debate. But the US National Institutes of Health has already turned down the team鈥檚 grant application to test whether nanobacteria cause calcification of the arteries in animals.
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Anything that challenges our ideas about the nature of life is bound to be met with scepticism. But just because an idea is unfashionable doesn鈥檛 mean it should be ignored, as Eric Lerner points out in an entirely different context on (鈥淏ucking the big bang鈥�). It is important to remember that many of the most cherished scientific theories started off as heresy. Twenty years ago, who would have believed that diseases could be passed on by a misshapen protein? Now it is almost universally accepted that diseases like BSE are transmitted this way.
Funding bodies should stay open-minded. With so many lives at stake, surely that is not too much to ask.